Hi all.  This looks like a very active and thoughtful forum.  I look forward to participating.  I’ve swayed from mildly religious in my childhood, to vigorously opposed to religion as I’ve gotten older. I’ve also learned from experience that there’s no way to convince someone away from their religion. 

However, I do believe institutionalized religion is a pox on humanity and should be driven away, though not at the expense of the individuals who practice it (assuming they’re honest about it and do no harm to others).  I believe there are concrete actions we can take to make religion a thing of the past…gently.

As far as labeling, I’d say I’m none of the above…certainly not a theist, not an atheist, and really not even an agnostic.

Welcome! Glad to have you here.

CuthbertJ - 25 April 2012 11:17 AM

As far as labeling, I’d say I’m none of the above…certainly not a theist, not an atheist, and really not even an agnostic.

Very interesting. Are you just opposed to labels in general (I’m not a big fan either, although I did finally decide to call myself a Humanist) or is it just that no label you have found sufficiently describes your beliefs?

I think we can’t even define the terms of the question that would lead to an answer of “theist, atheist, or agnostic”.  It’s been awhile, but I remember Dawkins had some kind of Scale of Belief or something like that.  If you fall within this range you’re a theist and you believe in god.  If you fall at the other end you’re an atheist and you don’t believe in god.  Middle being agnostic.  I remember thinking to myself, what if you don’t believe in the legitimacy of the scale?!

I agree, C-J. People love to label everything to make it appear to be simple, however, we are all complex beings with a wide variety of views on just as wide a variety of topics.  When people want to label me, I usually go along with it so as not to bother with long explanations.  I do say that I’m not an atheist but rather a nontheist, which usually confuses them.  I’m certainly a humanist, but I’ve seen long lists of characteristics supposedly defining huminists, and while I agree with quite a few of the items, there are some with which I don’t agree.  Each of is, if not unique, is at least unusual, so, although we can be put into a general category, it almost never precisely defines us.

Occam